


Transplanted

by therapeuticlobster



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Timeline, Angst, Family, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:01:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 22,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24739663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therapeuticlobster/pseuds/therapeuticlobster
Summary: After a fight with a mysterious portal-making ghost, Danny is left in an alternate universe. One in which he never survived the accident.
Comments: 55
Kudos: 229





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on FFN! Thanks for reading :) please let me know your thoughts and ideas, because I have no idea where this is going lol

Danny yelped and quickly jumped to the side as the ghost he was fighting fired yet another ectoblast at him. It was close—he could feel the paradoxically frigid heat of the blast as it passed inches from his face. He turned back to look at the ghost, wanting to keep her in his field of vision. Danny had never seen her before, which caused some difficulties because he was not sure how best to defeat her. Furthermore, her fighting style was different from most of the ghosts he fought. Most of his enemies had become somewhat predictable in their attacks. Hell, some of them even screamed out their plans in the middle of the fight. This habit, while annoying, made his job thoroughly easier.

This ghost, however, had barely said anything to him at all. He did not even know her name—which was even more rare in a ghost fight. Ghosts had a tendency to make themselves known whenever they attacked Amity. Even Danny had fallen into some of the same patterns. Don't get him wrong, he definitely did not take after Technus and Skulker. He was very much capable of keeping his mouth shut when he wanted to, but his banter definitely made them somewhat more enjoyable. Hey, when most of your free time is spent protecting the town, you have to have some fun with it, right?

Perhaps that's why this ghost was so unnerving. No fervent claims about her power and inevitable victory, no teasing him about his halfa status, no threatening to make him into a pelt or whatever. She was silent, did not seem to be fatiguing at all, and had a slight smile that curved the corners of her mouth upwards. She looked like she felt in complete control of the situation—and without a plan, backup, or evidently the same level of stamina, Danny was beginning to think there may be truth to that idea.

The ghost charged up another ectoblast, sending it speeding in Danny's direction. He did not have time to make a shield, and so resorted to jumping out of the way once more. He panted and wearily glanced back at the ghost. Her glowing red eyes were bright with determination and acute focus. She was dressed in a simple black top and red pants, and her glowing, fiery black hair was tied back in a ponytail.

"Why are you doing this?" Danny called out to her, not for the first time. Like before, he did not receive an answer. The ghost simply charged up another ectoblast and sent it careening towards him once more. Danny dodged to the side again, but failed to notice the second ectoblast coming straight towards his current position. Danny yelped at the blast knocked him backwards and through a portal. He came crashing down on the concrete and quickly looked around to figure out where he had landed. It looked like he was on the football field at his school. Another portal appeared and the strange ghost calmly glided through it.

"You can make portals?" Danny asked, exacerbated. Seriously, he only knew of one other ghost who was capable of that. The ghost woman said nothing, but her smile twitched somewhat.

"Oh, I'm so glad my surprise is amusing to you," Danny deadpanned.

The ghost fired another ectoblast again, this time ending directly in front of him and opening into another portal. Danny backed away, but the ghost had teleported behind him and pushed him through. Suddenly, Danny was falling again. Another portal opened beneath him, sending him to yet another location. Danny pulled on his flight abilities to slow his acceleration, hoping to regain his bearings. His fall slowed, but the ghost once again appeared alongside him and pushed him sideways through a portal. Danny was flung onto dirt and grass, and rolled from the impact of the attack. Danny groaned and tried to push himself up into a sitting position and felt his arms shake from the effort. White rings flashed around his waist, turning him human. His breathing was labored, and his mind raced with thoughts about what to do next. He saw the ghost land in front of him.

"Why… why are you doing this?" Danny asked once more, glancing up at her.

"Because, young Phantom," She replied, surprising Danny. "It is time that you learn what it means to be separated from your Obsession."

"What?" Danny asked, genuinely confused. "What did I ever do to you, huh?"

The ghost did not reply, but opened another portal, which she stepped through.

"Wait!" Danny protested, struggling to get up to his feet. He didn't know where he was, but he had a feeling he didn't want to be left here. By the time he got up to standing, it was too late. The portal was already sealing up behind her. Danny sighed. He was left alone, and was not sure exactly where he was. Danny groaned in frustration. He was tired and covered in scratches and bruises. Although those were sure to heal quickly, he still did not feel like dealing with trying to find his way back home. He just wanted to get back to his bed so he could sleep and forget about this stupid ghost fight. He sighed and accepted the fact that he had to start moving if he wanted to get there. He began walking along the road, his tired muscles aching in protest. Once he had regained enough strength, he changed back to Phantom. Being in his ghost form would help him to heal faster, and he wouldn't have to explain to anyone who walked by why Danny Fenton was so beat up.

Still, he did not quite have the energy to fly home. He was pretty fatigued from the fight, and was not certain whether or not the ghost was truly gone. For all he knew, she could be watching him and planning a sneak attack. As he trudged along, he realized that he knew the street that he was on. He actually wasn't that far from his house, only a couple blocks. That's weird, Danny thought. If he was right in Amity Park, then how could he be separated from his Obsession? Danny shrugged and kept walking.

A few minutes later, he was coming up to Amity's graveyard. He shivered at the realization; he never did like to be near graveyards. Particularly less so since he became a ghost. He wasn't quite sure why that was, he would have expected their to be more ghosts in graveyards. But then again, ghosts didn't really like to be reminded of their deaths, and graveyards were basically full of those reminders. He continued walking, but noticed two others who were walking towards the graveyard from the other direction. One was female and the other was male, and they were instantly recognizable to Danny. Those combat boots and bright red beret were unmistakable as they turned and passed through the gates. Danny quirked an eyebrow. What were Sam and Tucker doing in the graveyard?

Danny hobbled after them, curious about what had brought them to the graveyard. He passed through the gates, ignoring the shiver that passed through his spine. He followed his friends as they passed by rows of tombstones, feeling slightly creepy as he did so. He felt like he was stalking his friends, in a way. Oh well, it's not like he didn't sneak up on them all the time anyway, albeit unintentionally.

Eventually, Sam and Tucker came to stop in front of a tombstone. Danny walked up behind them, and decided to turn invisible to surprise them. He could use a laugh after the day he had, and a little ghostly fun never hurt anyone. He walked around to the other side of the gravestone, until he was standing directly in front of his friends. Holding back a laugh, he shouted "BOO!" while becoming visible.

The reaction couldn't have been more perfect. Sam jumped back and gasped, and Tucker let out the most high pitch scream that Danny had ever heard. Danny couldn't hold the laughter back any longer, and bent over as the laughs pealed out of him.

"Oh, man," Danny said, wiping his eyes. "You should have seen your faces! I think that was the best time I've ever gotten you!" Danny looked up at his friends, smiling. Sam's face was still etched with shock, her mouth open and her eyes wide. Tucker was trembling; clearly, he had gotten a serious dose of adrenaline.

"G-g-g-g-g-ghost!" Tucker stuttered out, teeth chattering. He took a step back, which Sam quickly followed.

"Oh, ha, ha, very funny, Tuck," Danny said, rolling his eyes. "I think we established that a while ago, dude."

Tucker and Sam didn't respond, but continued backing up step-by-step. Eventually they hit the back of another tombstone, causing their perilously slow retreat to come to an end.

Danny walked up closer to them. "Are you guys trying to get me back?" He asked. "Look, I'm sorry to let you down, but I think my prank was much better." Danny chuckled, slowly leaning back while floating. He didn't feel like he needed to conserve as much energy anymore since he now had backup with him.

Sam's eyebrows furrowed. "D-Danny? Is that you?" She asked, her voice lacking its usual bold, self-assured quality.

"Uh, yeah?" Danny said, coming to a more vertical position in the air. "Okay, you guys can quit joking now, you're starting to freak me out. You win, alright?"

Danny became more concerned when Sam's eyes started to fill with tears. Danny landed firmly on the ground, and turned back into Fenton. Maybe that weird portal ghost had messed with his friends, making them afraid of his ghost form. However, that action did not have the calming effects he intended. Tucker and Sam jumped back more, leaning on the tombstone as they tried to put as much distance between them as possible.

"Oh my god," Sam said quietly.

"Uh…Seriously, guys, what's going on?" Danny asked. He wanted to get closer to his friends, could feel his core pushing him to comfort them, but resisted. Clearly, his mere presence was distressing them enough as it was.

"D-dude," Tucker said, his voice quivering. His arm shook as he pointed a finger at the tombstone behind Danny. Danny turned around and swore once he saw what was written on the stone.

DANIEL JAMES FENTON

LOVING SON, BROTHER, AND FRIEND

YOUR SPIRIT WILL LIVE ON IN OUR HEARTS

Danny sighed, rubbing his eyes as he turned back to his friends. "As if I needed something else to worry about today," he mumbled.

"Alright," He said, putting his hands on his hips and looking directly at his still terrified friends. "When did this happen?"

"About a year and a half ago," Sam replied, looking down.

"Okay," Danny responded. "Now, is this the future or an alternate timeline?"

Sam and Tucker glanced at each other. "What?" They blurted in unison, confusion clear upon their faces.

Danny nodded. "Alternate timeline, then." He looked up at the sky in frustration, the fatigue from the day now resting heavily on his shoulders. "Damn it."


	2. Chapter 2

Danny sighed, his emotions dancing between fatigue and frustration. First, he gets attacked by some weirdo ghost out of nowhere, and she does not even have the decency to drop him back in the right timeline! Now he was stuck, injured but healing, until he can find a way to get back home. He kicked a pebble in front of him to dispel some of his frustration. All he wanted to do was go home and rest. Seriously, he was already exhausted, but now he could not even have the chance to relax until he managed to get back. Not to mention, he had accidentally scared the living daylights out of his friends, who evidently had come to the graveyard to mourn him. As if seeing his own grave was not enough, he now also had to try to undo whatever trauma he had brought upon his friends.

Danny pinched the bridge of his nose to dispel the coming headache. He turned back around to face his friends, who seemed to have not moved at all since his matter-of-fact explanation. Hopefully, Danny had not caused them to go into shock or whatever psychology term Jazz used for this sort of stuff? The thought of his sister caused him to yearn for her presence, although that was something he would never admit to her. Jazz would know what to say. She would know what to do. She had studied this sort of thing for fun for years. Danny was barely passing his classes and felt completely clueless about what to say to two people who just saw their dead friend.

"Guys, I know this is strange, and I'm sorry. I… I guess I've gotten so used to weird stuff happening to me that I've stopped thinking about how weird this can be for people who aren't… I guess. I shouldn't have just sprung the whole alternate timeline thing at you like that." Danny waited and watched to see how this Sam and Tucker would react to what he was saying. Tucker was visibly shaking, his mouth opening and closing at awkward intervals as if he did not know whether to respond or scream. Sam was silent as well, but she had furrowed her brows, and she seemed to be trying to piece together the situation that had just popped into her life.

"Uh…" Danny said, wondering whether he should continue or wait for them to say something. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the ground. Seconds passed, and the tension slowly grew in the air until it was so heavy Danny thought he would collapse from the pressure. "Um. Well. I guess this isn't exactly the most pleasant thing that's happened to you. Seeing your dead friend again, I mean." Sam and Tucker both flinched from the explicit reminder. Danny blushed. "Sorry. Um. Well, I'm not dead. Well, I guess your Danny is, but I'm not. So, you don't have to freak out about talking to a dead person at least, right?" Danny awkwardly smiled as he tried to reassure his friends.

"Look, I don't know who you are, but I think you should leave. As you said, you're not our Danny. Also, thanks for the reminder that our friend is dead. I had almost forgotten." Sam said, her voice cracking as her throat tightened up. She tried to sound angry, tried to shame this pretender into leaving, but still could not talk about Danny without almost collapsing. She could hardly stand looking at Danny's face and hated this pretender for stealing it. How dare he disrespect Danny?

The Danny look-alike sighed. "Yeah. You're right. That was stupid." He rubbed his face with his hands and looked up, as if hoping the sky would open up and swallow him right there. He seemed like he wanted nothing more than to disappear.

"Yeah. It was." Sam agreed, pulling her strength together to continue looking into this pretender's eyes. She had to be strong. Tucker had not been able to say anything yet; she needed to protect her friend. He was the only one she had left, after all.

"Look," Danny began. He looked at Sam pleadingly. "I'm sorry for all of this. The prank, coming here, all of it. I'll leave you alone, I promise, but I need to find a way home first. I think I'm going to need your help for that."

A bitter laugh escaped from Sam's lips. "Help? You? You steal my friend's face, terrify my only friend, and you have the balls to ask us for help? I don't think so. You're on your own. Just get back the way you came, and don't come back."

Danny flinched. "Okay. I get why you don't believe me, but I really can't just get back. I was attacked by some weird portal ghost, and…" Danny trailed off, realizing that the truth probably sounded way more bizarre than anything else he had said so far. He had already convinced Sam at least that he was some kind of fake Danny. Which he was, in a way, considering that he wasn't their Danny. "Okay… Okay. I'll leave you guys alone. But can you just point me in the direction of my parents' house? The Fentons, I mean." Danny clarified, seeing the anger that just reignited in Sam's eyes.

"They're gone." Sam said simply.

"What?" Danny asked. "What do you mean 'they're gone'?" Surely his family had not been killed in his accident in this timeline… The guilt would be unbearable.

"They moved. After the accident." Sam said.

Danny visibly deflated. "Oh. Uh… Where did they move to?"

Sam scoffed. "I'm not going to tell you where they are. They don't need some Danny look-alike coming along to hurt them. They're grieving. Leave them alone."

"Uh. Yeah. I didn't think about that." Danny said lamely. Seriously, was his mere presence causing this much pain so easily? Sam and Tucker's reactions to him had already felt like a punch in the gut. "Really, I'm sorry for all of this. I wouldn't have followed you here if—"

"You followed us here?" Sam exclaimed. "Did you just ask yourself how you could hurt us the most? Is that why you stole my friend's face? Just for the fun of it?"

"No! No." Danny said, eyes widened. "I thought—I thought you were my friends. My Sam and Tucker. I would never intentionally hurt you guys!"

Sam rolled her eyes and glanced at Tucker. To her surprise, he had stopped shaking. He looked pensive, as though he were trying to solve a mildly interesting crossword puzzle. The expression seemed strangely out of place, given the circumstances. Either he was going catatonic to cope with the stress, or he was seeing something she didn't.

"What can I do to prove to you that I'm Danny? Seriously, give me a chance. Please." Danny begged.

"The first time we met. What was the first thing you said to me?" Tucker asked. Sam made a move to interrupt him, but something in his voice stopped her.

Danny gave Tucker a soft smile. "I didn't say anything. We were at our first day of kindergarten and I was so shy I wasn't talking at all… I felt so alone, but I was terrified to talk to anyone. But you came up to me anyway and offered to share your crayons. You drew a picture of a hamburger and said that was your imaginary friend. You said he would smash anyone who was mean to us." Danny shrugged. "We've been best friends ever since."

Tucker's expression didn't change as he said, "That's him, Sam. That's him."

Sam's eyes widened at his declaration, before raising her eyebrow and turning to glance at him. "Really, Tucker? A hamburger was your imaginary friend?"

Tucker shrugged. "What can I say? I love my meat."


	3. Chapter 3

The sun had now begun to set, casting orange beams to fall through the trees in the cemetery. Danny watched his feet hit the gravel on the path as he walked slightly behind his two friends. Wait, were they his friends? Sure, Sam and Tuck had always been the people he felt closest to, but they weren't his Sam and Tucker.

Just like he wasn't their Danny.

It could have been this unspoken barrier that kept him from walking alongside the pair. It was odd, Danny reflected, that he now felt like an outsider even when he was with Sam and Tuck. Sure, he was used to being considered a loser, somewhat estranged from whatever group he was in. Hell, his state of being was the very definition of being one foot in, one foot out. Usually, he tried not to think about his weird half-living, half-dead situation, but being here in this cemetery, with the mournful silence that came with the twilight hour, it was hard to ignore. Then there was the fact that he was literally the ghost of Sam and Tuck's dead friend in some ways. They had come here to mourn him.

It was a disconcerting thought.

Danny stayed silent, as did they. The only sounds that could be heard were the crunching of gravel beneath their feet, and the leaves gently rustling in the wind. They had decided to go to Sam's mansion to talk about what they should do next, as well as to get answers from both sides. The rationale was that Sam's parents were less likely to overhear or interrupt their conversation. Her parents usually left her alone whenever they weren't trying to convince her to conform to their ways of living. Danny had never really thought about how lonely Sam must feel at times, with her absentee parents. He was sure that was some kind of abuse, leaving a child alone at all times and continuously criticizing her when they were together. How had he never noticed that before? Sam certainly was far too tough to complain about her situation. Danny figured that Jazz would say she had been forced to grow up and become independent far earlier than she should have. As he walked a half-step behind his friends, Danny frowned. In different ways, they all had had to grow up earlier than they would have wished.

Slowly, they came to the gated entrance of the cemetery. Sam sighed before turning to Danny. "Okay, we are going to have to make a plan for how to get you to my place without being seen. It's getting darker, so I think we can use that our advantage. Any ideas?" She glanced at Tucker, who tended to be the one who quickly and efficiently found solutions to every problem. His eyebrows scrunched together, and he frowned slightly, his concentrated expression all too familiar to Danny.

"I actually don't think that will be an issue," Danny spoke up. At Sam and Tucker's raised eyebrows, he turned invisible. Both of them flinched at the action, causing Danny's heart to squeeze. They had never shown any fear of him before.

"Sorry," He muttered. "I guess this is something else we can add to the list of things to discuss." Danny chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck although no one else could see what he was doing.

"Guess so," Tucker said softly. He had recovered much faster than he had the first time Danny had popped into existence by him. His morose tone felt like a knife plunging into Danny. His friend, his funny, dorky, goofy friend, never had such hollowness in his voice. Danny had never heard his friend use a tone that even sounded close to it, not even when he told Danny that his grandmother had passed away. He'd been full of grief, yes, but he had never sounded so… empty. What had happened to him in this timeline?

"Well, let's carry on then," Sam said, turning her back on the invisible teen. She took her steps with confidence and purpose, betraying none of the unease Danny was sure she felt.  
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Danny popped back into the visible spectrum when Sam closed her bedroom door. He tried to ignore their flinches and the way that Sam and Tucker seemed to avoid looking at him. Sam's muscles were tensed, but she sat on her bed with all the nonchalance she could muster. Tucker eased into the chair at her desk, leaving Danny to awkwardly stand in the center of the room. Usually, he would sit in the lounge chair next to her bookshelf, but he was not sure what he was allowed to do here. Sam and Tucker, if they had noticed his uncertainty, certainly were not doing anything to welcome him further. He knew his friends, and though they had different experiences, he knew they were not trying to be callous. They probably did not know what to do in this situation. After all, it was not every day that your dead friend came by to hang out.

"So, uh," Danny started, shifting his weight. "I guess I owe you an explanation."

Sam snorted. "That's an understatement."

Danny flushed. "Right. Well. I guess the shortest version is that I'm Danny, but I'm not your Danny."

Sam quirked an eyebrow. Tucker, without looking up from the floor, asked, "And what does that mean, exactly?"

"Well," Danny gave a sigh of exasperation. "It's a bit hard to explain."

"Well, it's a bit hard looking at the face of your dead best friend," Sam shot back. "So, I guess we're even."

Danny flinched. Obviously, she was still harboring some negative feelings towards him. Not that he could blame her, really. "Fair enough. Well, have you heard of the Ghost Zone?"

Danny did not miss the pained glances his two friends shared. Sighing, Tucker responded. "Yeah, dude. Your parents were trying to open a portal there. That's how you…" He trailed off, unable to continue.

Danny felt the blood rush from his face, leaving him ghostly pale. "Oh," He muttered.

"So… You know about that?" Sam asked. Curiosity mingled with grief in her voice.

"Uh…" Danny uttered. "Yeah. Yeah, I do. The same thing pretty much happened to me."

Sam and Tucker shuddered. "Oh," they whispered.

Danny felt uncomfortable. They usually did not talk about the Accident. It was another thing on the list of stuff he ignored. "Yeah, well, I guess it ended differently for me. But that's why I can do stuff like invisibility, intangibility, and… other things." He ended lamely.

"That's why you looked different," Tucker stated.

"Uh, yeah. That's… my ghost half. That's what we call it, at least."

"'We'?" Sam inquired.

Danny nodded. "Yeah. The three of us. You, me, and Tuck." He glanced briefly at their faces. "After the… After what happened, we kind of started hunting ghosts. We call ourselves Team Phantom." His lips turned upward as thoughts of their adventures flashed in his mind.

"'Team Phantom'?" It was Tucker's turn to ask.

"Yeah. You know, because we decided to call my ghost half Danny Phantom." He grinned now. "Get it? Because Fenton and Phantom sound kind of similar?" When he did not get a reaction, his shoulders slumped. "Well, I don't know. We thought it was kind of funny. You actually came up with it, Tucker."

Tucker looked up from the ground, fully gazing at Danny for the first time that night. "Dude. No way. I would have come up with something much cooler."

"Yeah? Like what?"

"Like… I don't know. The In-Dan-gible Man or something." He shrugged.

Silence met this statement.

"Really, Tucker? The In-Dan-gible Man?" Sam asked, throwing a pillow at him. Danny burst out laughing.

Tucker put up his hands to block the assault. "Hey! Yeah, don't you get it? Because his name is Danny? And ghosts are intangible and stuff?"

"Dude, I think that's worse than Inviso-Bill," Danny said, wiping his eyes.

"No way. Mine at least has some of your name in it. It's obviously better than that!" Tucker scoffed.

The trio chucked a bit, the tension that had been shadowing their evening lifting somewhat. The mood was definitely still somber, but it was reassuring to Danny that they could have moments like this, regardless of what timeline he was in. He honestly could not wait to tell his Tucker about the name he had come up with.

"So, you said you're not 'our Danny,'" Sam started. "What exactly do you mean by that?"

"Alternate timeline," Danny shrugged, by way of explanation.

"Alternate timeline," Sam repeated. Danny nodded. "Yeah, you're going to have to elaborate on that."

"Oh, yeah. Well, that's why I asked if you knew about the Ghost Zone earlier. See, there are portals there that lead to a lot of different things. Some open the way to a ghost's lair, others bring you to a different place on Earth or the Zone, some bring you to a different place but also during a different time, and still others bring you to alternate universes or timelines," Danny explained. "Basically, unless you know where you're going, there's no telling where a portal's going to take you."

Sam nodded. Tucker gazed out of Sam's window, a pensive look on his face once more. Danny frowned. He had seen a glimpse of his old friend, but he had returned to this empty version of himself quickly.

"So, you took a wrong turn, then?" Sam probed.

"Not exactly," Danny replied, rubbing the back of his neck. "I got into a fight with this weird portal-making ghost. She attacked me out of nowhere and abandoned me here. I still don't know what her name is or why she has it in for me. I'm pretty confused about the whole thing."

"Is this… normal for you? Getting attacked and ending up in different timelines?" Sam queried.

"No, not really. I mean, I've had experiences with different points in time and different timelines, but I still wouldn't say it's normal."

Sam nodded, pondering this response. She glanced towards Tucker, who still said nothing.

"I… I know this must be a lot. I mean, I think hearing about all this would be a lot for anyone, but I think it's especially hard since… You know, since I look like…" Danny trailed off.

"You look like Danny," Tucker noted.

"Uh, yeah," Danny agreed. He was not sure what else he could really say. Silence enveloped the trio, the heaviness of grief pressing down on them. Danny kicked himself for bringing up his alternate self. They had been making progress and starting to get along, just for him to push them right back to where they started.

"So," Tucker began, looking at Danny. "What's next?"

"I guess… Well, I need to get back to the Ghost Zone," Danny answered. "I thought, you know, my parents would have a portal set up and ready to go. I figured I would just use that and then try to find my way back to my timeline. But I don't know where they are now." He could not stop his eyes from looking at Sam, who had vehemently declined to tell him where his family had moved. Noticing his glance, she blushed in shame.

"It wouldn't matter, anyway. They gave up ghost hunting. They said they couldn't take it, after… you know." Sam informed him.

"Oh," Danny said, shoulders slumping in defeat.

Noticing his discomfort, Sam said, "You can sit over there, you know."

"Thanks," Danny replied, grateful for her subtle act of acceptance. "That does make things more difficult. There are a couple of other options, but neither of them are easy."

"What are they?" Tucker inquired.

"Well…" Danny hesitated, wondering how much of his arch-enemy's secret he could safely share. "I know Vlad Masters used to work with my parents. He might have a portal or be able to make one. He… He wouldn't be my first choice, but I guess it'll have to do."

"Okay," Tucker nodded. "And if that doesn't work out? What else can we do?"

"The only other option I know of would be to wait for a natural portal to appear. There's no telling when that would happen, though, and I would have to make sure I was there at exactly the right moment."

"Sounds difficult," Sam affirmed. "I guess we'll have to track down this Vlad guy, then."

Tucker nodded in agreement. "We'll have to take care of that later, though. We have school tomorrow, and my mom will kill me if I miss any more days. She's already saying I'm throwing away my future by not going." Sam scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"Wait, why are you missing so much school?" Danny wondered. "I thought the… You know, I thought the Accident was over a year ago."

Clearly, this had not been the right thing to say. He watched as Tucker's jaw tightened and Sam's expression became closed off. "Well, pardon me for taking a while to get over your dying right in front of us," Tucker retorted.

Danny felt like he had been slapped. "Whoa. I didn't realize," He began. "I didn't… I didn't think about how hard that must have been for you guys. I'm sorry." He sighed. He'd been a real jerk. He had thought about how hard it would be to see him essentially coming back from the dead, but the Accident…

They had been with him when it happened. They had been the only ones with him. That meant… Not only did they have to watch him be electrocuted to death, but they must have had to be the ones to contact the authorities. They must have been the ones who had to tell his parents… That was a lot to put on a pair of fourteen-year-olds' shoulders.

"I'm sorry, guys," He repeated.

"It doesn't matter," Tucker shrugged. "We'll figure out how to get you to this Vlad guy tomorrow. Then you won't have to worry about my school attendance anymore."

Danny was hurt by this forced nonchalance, but accepted the end of the conversation. He really couldn't think of any way to respond, anyway. Following Tucker's declaration, Sam began setting up the guest room for them to share.

As Danny lay in the bed, looking up at the ceiling, in the same room as his best friend, he couldn't help but feel a small piece of him curling in on itself. He had given what was left of his life to protecting the people he loved, but here he was, causing them more pain than what they had already experienced. He rolled over, the words of the portal-ghost echoing in his head…

Because, young Phantom, it is time that you learn what it means to be separated from your Obsession.


	4. Chapter 4

Danny blinked his eyes open, taking in the sunlight streaming through the bedroom window. He felt like he had not slept at all, but if the sun was anything to go by, he had managed to rest a while. He shifted his head to look at the bed across the room. The covers had clearly been slept in, but Tucker was not there. He must have already left for school, then. Danny sighed. He was not sure how to feel about him leaving without saying goodbye. Was his presence really that painful for Tucker? Or was he uninterested in speaking to him more than necessary? Danny's heart sunk at the thought.

Danny felt… strange. He would have thought that he would feel rested after getting a full night's sleep, which is something that had become exceedingly rare for him. However, he just felt empty. True, he was not tired, physically at least, but he did not feel any motivation to get out of bed, either. Danny guessed that Sam had probably left for school as well. It was weird, being left alone in Sam's house. In his timeline, the three of them were inseparable. Even more so whenever they had something pressing to attend to, such as the need to find Vlad so that Danny could return home. Danny tried to remind himself that this apparent lack of concern was not coming from the best friends he had grown up with. They looked like Sam and Tuck, sure, but it was not truly them. Still, he felt lonely and isolated.

Danny sat up in the bed, the feeling of isolation washing over him. He realized that this was a feeling he did not have very often, which was surprising considering he was one of three half-ghosts in the world. His friendships had always helped him to feel like he had people behind him, supporting him. Sam and Tucker were truer friends than anyone could hope to ask for. They cared about him, lied for him, protected him, and fought beside him whenever they could. Danny felt, more often than not, that he needed to keep them away from the ghostly side of his life, for their safety. He would never be able to forgive himself if something bad ever happened to them. All the same, his friends had refused to let his "hero's complex" get in the way of their being there for him. Danny had always felt conflicted about their help, feeling equal pulls to protect them from physical harm and the emotional harm that would come from not letting them help. After years of Sam and Tucker fighting to be with him, it was weird waking up and realizing that they had left him, apparently jumping at the excuse not to be with him. He could understand why, but that did make much of a difference in terms of how he felt.

Danny sighed and slowly got out of bed. Stretching, he thought about what he could do while Sam and Tucker were at school. Sam's family was sure to have every luxury available to them—the movie theatre and the bowling alley in the basement could speak to that. He would bet that they had a computer somewhere. In fact, Danny thought there was probably one in Sam's room. His Sam usually left her laptop at home when she went to school, since large electronics were not allowed. He figured this Sam probably did the same; he doubted school rules were much different here. If so, then he could at least start trying to find Vlad. Maybe he could find out where he lived and find his ghost portal without having to bother Sam and Tucker anymore with his problems. Danny bit his lip and nodded to himself. It seemed like the best plan.

Danny went invisible before leaving the guest room. He was sure that Sam's father would be at work and that her mother would be out doing something—Sam would probably say she was shopping for pink clothes to replace her current black wardrobe. He just was not sure where her grandmother, Ida, would be or if Sam's family had any butlers or maids or whatever. Danny was certain they had a maid at least; he could not imagine Sam's mother or father doing any cleaning around the house. Either way, someone seeing Danny when he was supposed to be dead would probably not be a great thing to happen. Invisibility would protect him from that.

Danny crept through the hall, trying not to make much noise. He could easily float, but he wanted to preserve as much energy as possible. He was not sure how far he would need to fly in order to get to Vlad. He poked his head into Sam's room to make sure no one was in there before entering. Sam's bed was still unmade, so Danny guessed that either the maids did not enter Sam's room at all, or they just had not made it to her room yet. Danny would have to be careful in case it was the latter. Danny became visible once more, but continued to make an effort to be as silent as possible. He locked the door, hoping that there were not any rules about not doing that in Sam's house. He had caused enough trouble, he really did not want her to get grounded because of him. After locking the door, Danny glanced around the room, looking for a computer or laptop. He saw a laptop sitting at her desk, and he made his way over and sat in the desk chair.

When he opened the laptop, he was met with a locked screen asking for a password. He knew his Sam's password, "TeamPhantom", but he doubted that this Sam's was the same, especially since Team Phantom did not exist here. Danny tapped his fingers on the desk, thinking. He typed in "ultrarecyclovegetarian", since this part of her identity was one of the most important to her. The computer beeped and told him the password was incorrect. Frowning, Danny typed in "goth", only to be met with another message that he was incorrect. Danny sighed and leaned back in the desk chair. He supposed this was a problem—he probably should know Sam well enough to guess what her password would be if it was not "TeamPhantom". Shrugging, Danny typed in the well-known password. The computer, as expected, did not give him access. Danny put his head in his hands. He was too exhausted to deal with this. To be honest, he felt like he was just getting more and more tired every minute that he spent in this world. He figured that Jazz would tell him it was because of how much stress he was experiencing here. He supposed that probably was the reason, but his time as a half-ghost had led him to be suspicious of any changes in his life.

He granted that being thrown into an alternate timeline was a pretty glaring change.

Danny shook his head, trying to clear out all the thoughts clouding his mind. If he did not want to stay in this timeline any longer than he needed to (and if he did not want to hurt Sam and Tucker any more than he already had), then he had to focus on finding the Fruitloop so he could go home. Danny returned to the task of figuring out Sam's password, and felt his stomach sink when he realized a painful possibility. Danny's hands shook as he went to enter in his next guess for Sam's password… "Danny".

Danny wilted when the computer gave him access. He felt like he was starting to realize how deep Sam's pain had been when he passed… He knew that his name had not been her password before she had switched it to "TeamPhantom" in his timeline. He started to think about how he would react if Sam or Tucker died and felt like his heart was punched with grief and remorse. If they died… Well, it probably would have been caused by their connection with him, one way or another.

Danny felt a shock of realization as he remembered Dan (which was odd because it seemed like he was never too far from his mind). That… That is what he would have to fight against becoming if Sam or Tucker died. Danny felt like an idiot. Of course, Sam and Tucker were hurting—when he had lost them, he had essentially destroyed the world in his grief. When compared to that option, Sam and Tucker were coping pretty well.

Well, maybe that was not entirely fair to say either. Danny groaned, dropping his head onto the table. Every time he felt like he got closer to understanding what this Sam and Tucker were saying, he felt like he realized just how much he did not know about their lives. Sure, they had not become evil, manipulative, violent ghosts bent on destroying all of humanity for fun, but what changes had they gone through? Perhaps they were not as obvious as his own, but that did not make them any less real or heart-crushing.

Maybe he should ask…?

Maybe not. They had not exactly seemed excited to see him, much less willing to have such a painful conversation with him.

He really needed to find Vlad.

With that in mind, he opened up a web browser. He typed "Vlad Masters" into the search bar and hit enter. He was met with a list of possibilities, but he noticed he did not have quite as many hits as he would have gotten in his timeline. Was Vlad less attention-seeking in this timeline…? He could not see how his death would have changed that aspect of his rival's personality. He furrowed his brows and began browsing the different websites. Strangely, some of the hits did not even seem to be about his Vlad (ew, he could not believe that thought had just crossed his mind), but about different Vlad Masters instead. Danny had not even known that there were other Vlad Masters in the world. Clearly, the Frootloop was not as well-known in this timeline. But why…?

Danny went back to the search bar and typed in "Vlad Masters Wisconsin". Hopefully, this clarification would help narrow down the results. Danny started scrolling through the results and felt his heart plummet once more as he saw the words "Obituary: Vladimir Masters". Feeling like he had just swallowed a whole spoonful of peanut butter at once, he clicked on the link.

Danny read through the article. As he read, he saw his ray of hope steadily growing dimmer. Apparently, Vlad had been in the hospital a few weeks after the portal incident. This was no surprise, the same had happened to the Vlad from his timeline. However, this Vlad did not recover. He had never miraculously been cured of his ecto-acne—though the name of the disease was not mentioned in the article. Danny supposed that there was even less evidence of the paranormal in this world than in his own timeline. However, the hope-destroying truth was the same.

Vlad was dead.

The portal accident had killed him, just like it had killed Danny. Danny stared at the screen. He did not click on anything else, although he had finished reading the article. He truly did not know what to do. Vlad had—ironically—been his best hope. Now… He could not even say what his next hope was. Vlad was dead, meaning that there was no problem-solving portal at Vlad's mansion. His parents had evidently given up ghost hunting and ectobiology, meaning that there was no portal at his parents' home either. He was not even sure if the portal in Fenton's old basement had the potential to work. He had already been half-killed by the thing in his timeline, he really did not want to experience that all over again. He had some knowledge of how his parents' technology worked, but not enough to re-engineer the portal. But…

Tucker could.

Tucker was the most technologically-savvy person he had ever met. He knew more about Fenton tech than Danny himself did. At least, he did in Danny's timeline. He was pretty sure that Tucker could learn it here with Danny teaching him everything he knew.

That meant that Tucker was his next best shot at getting home. That also meant that he needed to talk Tucker into helping him with this. And… He would probably have to convince Sam to continue letting him stay with her. So, Danny had two difficult conversations waiting for him whenever Sam and Tucker got back from school.

Joy.


	5. Chapter 5

Danny sat, invisibly, on the steps of Casper High. He held his head in his hands. He felt so tired—he felt like he had only grown more tired since he had woken up at Sam's that morning. He was sure it was because of all the stress he was under. After finding out that Vlad was dead and now his hopes for getting home rested with Tucker, he had come to the high school to wait for the school day to end. He had not known what else to do. He chose not to go inside, thinking that they probably would not appreciate the ghost of their old friend floating near them while they tried to pay attention in Lancer's class. So, here he waited.

He glanced at his cell phone. The time was 2:58, leaving just two minutes until Sam and Tucker would be dismissed. He felt his hands shake in anxiety and clenched them to try and get them to stop. He had never before been so nervous to see them, yet now he felt like he would rather do anything than talk to them again. They had been explicitly clear that they were not happy to see him and that they wanted nothing to do with him. All he had done was cause them pain.

He felt more energy drain out of him at the thought.

He jumped when he heard the bell ring, almost falling out of invisibility. He stood up and walked to the side of the stairs, out of the way of the students flooding out of the doors. He waited, equally worried to see them and to miss them. He scanned the crowd, trying his hardest to locate the signature red beret and half-up ponytail. He felt his stomach twist as he saw them. He followed them, invisibly and intangibly, until he was near enough to them to whisper.

"Hey, guys," Danny whispered. He felt his voice quiver and was glad that he was speaking softly enough that they could not hear it.

Sam and Tucker jumped, clearly not expecting to hear the voice of their dead friend at that moment. Sam swung around, eyes flashing, trying to locate him. When she did not see him, she started to reach out, trying to grab a hold of him.

"I know you're there," She hissed, clearly trying not to catch the attention of the other students. "How long have you been following us?"

"Whoa, I haven't been following you," Danny said, raising his hands up placatingly. He let his hands drop when he realized they could not see him. "I have news. I was waiting outside the school. I haven't been, like, stalking you in your classes or anything."

"Whatever," Sam rolled her eyes. She glanced at Tucker, who gave a shrug. His face seemed empty of emotion, and Danny's heart dropped at the thought that he had pushed his friend further into apathy. He seemed like he was too tired to care whether he was there or not. Sam briefly looked in Danny's general direction and jerked her head, indicating that he should follow them.

"Look, guys," Danny said, running a few steps to get closer to them. "I really am sorry to be causing you so much pain. It really… It really bothers me. I mean, I care about you guys and never want to hurt you."

"Then, leave." Sam said, teeth clenched.

"I'm trying!" Danny huffed. "Look, I know you won't understand, but there's… Ghosts have reasons for existing, you know? Something that gives them a sense of purpose." Danny bit his lip. He hated acknowledging how much like a ghost he really was. It made him feel less human… Jazz had told him that he should work on accepting both halves of himself, but he felt like he would be losing a piece of his humanity in order to do that. Danny shook his head, pushing that train of thought out of his mind. He needed to focus on the problem at hand.

"Your point?" Sam asked. Her voice was still unwelcoming, but her glance backwards to where Danny was betrayed her interest in what he was saying. Danny's heart leapt up, hope spreading through his being.

"Well, I'm half-ghost, right? So, that kind of means that that applies to me, too. And… And let's just say that my purpose makes it so hurting people is…" Danny sighed. Talking about his obsession was always hard, but he had never tried to explain it to anyone before. He felt protective of it; he did not want to talk about it any more than he had to, but he needed them to know that he would not be bothering them unless it was absolutely necessary. "It's painful, okay? Like, more than it would if I was fully human."

At this, Sam whirled around. Students who were walking home in the same general direction gave her wary glances and put more space between them. "Are you implying that this is more painful for you than it is for us?" Tears welled in her eyes. She brushed them away with the back of her hand and looked angrier that she had shown weakness.

"No!" Danny rebutted. He groaned. "Okay, I guess that came out wrong. What I mean is that hurting you guys goes against my being okay? It feels like I'm tearing away bits of my core."

Sam turned back around and continued walking. She did not give him any signal not to follow, so he kept walking behind them. "I don't like talking about it, okay? No ghost does." Danny gritted his teeth. His Sam and Tucker had always accepted him, and they had even helped him navigate what his obsession was and process what it meant to be half-human, half-ghost. He felt vulnerable talking about it now, however. He was not sure how they would react and whether they would think he was as much of a freak as he had always feared he was.

The trio fell into silence. Danny focused on the sound of his footsteps and the sound of the wind rustling the leaves in the trees. Jazz had told him that paying attention to little things like that could help to group him. He tried using her advice whenever he actually remembered it.

After a period of time, Tucker spoke up. "Thanks for sharing, dude," He stated. His voice was monotone, but Danny appreciated the sentiment all the same. The tension between them seemed to feel less suffocating. "I don't know why, but it seems like that wasn't something you really wanted to share with us."

Danny nodded, then remembered that he was still invisible. "Yeah, it's… I mean, no, I've always talked to you guys about it. Argh, I mean that I've always talked to the Sam and Tucker from my world." He rubbed his face, trying to find the right words. "I… I mean to say that I trust you guys, and I want to show you that I do. It's… It's not something that I would tell most anyone. A ghost's… It gives them a sense of meaning, but it can also be their greatest weakness." He was not exactly sure why he could not use the word Obsession. Jazz would probably know why. "The reason why I'm telling you about mine is that I want you to know that I really don't want to hurt you, and I know that my presence is hurting you right now. And I hate that. I really, really hate that."

Danny was glad he was invisible as his own eyes filled with tears. He was grateful for the pause in the conversation; it gave him a chance to pull his emotions together. He did not know what he would do if his friends had to comfort him when he was the one causing all the pain between them in the first place.

"Okay," Tucker said after a moment. "Okay."

It seemed like he had accepted something, although Danny was not sure exactly what it was. All the same, he felt like something had been resolved. The trio walked in silence until they reached Sam's home.  
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
The three of them walked into Sam's room, Sam and Tucker dropping their bags as soon as they walked in. Danny became visible once more as the door shut behind them. Sam and Tucker jumped in shock, but it was clear they were trying to hide their reactions. Danny guessed that they did not want him to know how freaked out his presence still made them

Sam settled onto her bed and Tucker relaxed into one of Sam's lounge chairs. Danny, still feeling slightly awkward, sat down in an uncomfortable desk chair. He felt overly self-conscious; he kept rearranging the way he was holding his arms and legs. No position felt quite right. Danny thought it could be because his existence in this world was not quite right.

"Okay," Sam spoke up, breaking the silence. "What was so important that you could not wait for us to get back here?"

Danny grimaced. "Sorry, I didn't mean to freak you out by being at the school. I just didn't know where else to go, and it felt shitty sitting around and not knowing what to do."

Tucker nodded but didn't say anything else.

"You remember how I told you that there might be another way for me to get home? And that I just needed to find out where the guy was?" Danny asked. Sam and Tucker nodded.

"Yeah, did you find his address or where he works?" Sam asked.

"That's the thing," Danny hesitated. "He's… He's dead."

Sam scoffed. "Well, that's just great."

Danny grimaced. "Yeah. I'm guessing that however my parents made the portal in this timeline was lethal, no matter if it was on the small scale or large scale."

"Keep going," Sam ordered. Danny flinched, realizing that talking about the lethality of portals probably was not the best way to introduce his new idea.

"There's currently not a stable portal to the Ghost Zone, which means that there's not a reliable way for me to get back to my timeline right now." Danny stated.

"Great," Sam said again. "So, you're stuck here forever? We better just get used to seeing our dead friend everywhere, huh." Sam trailed off, glancing at Tucker, who was staring at the ground. Danny was still disturbed by how reserved his once-exuberant friend had become.

"Not exactly. At least, I hope not," Danny began. "There's a couple other ways that I can get back. One way is to wait for a natural portal. The thing is, there's no way to predict when and where a natural portal will open. There's no guarantee that we'll come across one at all during our lifetimes in this timeline."

"Awesome." Sam said sarcastically. Danny hated that all of her responses to what he said were either confrontational or sarcastic. He missed when all her passion and protectiveness included him, rather than against him.

"Another way," Danny began, hesitating. "Is to build a portal ourselves."

That got their attention. Sam and Tucker looked up at him. Clearly, they had not been expecting that proposal at all. Danny took a deep breath, trying to take the time to think.

"It's not going to be easy," He continued, "We're going to need to do a lot of research and find a lot of the tools. There's no guarantee that it could work, either. But if there's anyone that I would trust to help me with this, it's you two. Tucker, you have more technical knowledge than anyone I've ever met. I could really use your help engineering this thing."

Danny paused. He had launched into planning mode, something he had started to take more initiative in ever since becoming a half-ghost hero. However, he usually had the support of his friends whenever he was introducing a plan. Now, he was trying to gain it.

"I know seeing me is hard. And I know that this whole project is going to be hard. But… I'll do whatever you want me to do to make it easier for you. If you want to talk, or if I can do something for you, then I'll do it. Just… Please. Please, I really… I need you guys. I can't do this without you."

Sam and Tucker glanced at each other. Danny could hear every pound of his slow heartbeat as he waited for their decision. Finally, they nodded.

"Okay. We'll help you," Sam stated on both their behalves.

Danny smiled. He felt like he could fall to the ground in relief. These two friends were the best anyone could ask for—he doubted that anyone else would be willing to go above and beyond for someone they had never truly known.

Now it was time to start working.


	6. Chapter 6

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were in the library. It was odd how normal a situation that would be, were Danny not in an alternate timeline. Even then, he could imagine scenarios where the three of them together, doing research in order to fight some ghost or another, would not be so strange. As much as he personally hated going to the library and doing research, he knew it was one of the best ways to find ideas about how to hunt ghosts in the present day. It had taken him a while to learn that lesson-it had taken a lot of work on Jazz's part to get him to agree to it the first time they had turned to research for help. He had reluctantly admitted that it was helpful after Sam had found a legend about a ghost he had been fighting at the time. Sam's discovery had been the turning point then.

Maybe one of the things that made this experience weird was that he was currently invisible. They could not risk anyone seeing Danny Fenton-who was supposed to be dead-hanging out in the library reading a book. He was sure that would raise more than just one question. Now, the book Danny was pouring through looked like an extra book Sam and Tucker had put aside. When Danny first suggested that they go to the library, Sam and Tucker had been quick to tell him that they were willing to go on their own. Now, sitting here invisibly, he could tell that they were actively trying to pretend he was not there. Every time he turned a page, he saw Sam stiffen beside him.

Little actions like that made his core ache-he knew that he was hurting them simply by being there. He hated it. His sole purpose in his existence was to protect people, especially those he cared about. Now, he could not do anything without reminding his friends of his presence, and he could feel the grief that flowed through them every damn time. Danny felt his eyes water and angrily pushed the emotion away. He was the one hurting people, not the other way around. He did not deserve to be upset. He would not be able to bear it if his emotions made Sam and Tucker feel like they needed to comfort him. That would be so selfish of him…

Danny shrugged his shoulders, trying to shake the thoughts that kept coursing through his mind. He needed to focus. If he could find a way to fix the Fenton Portal, then he could find his way back to Clockwork and his own timeline. Then, he would not be hurting his friends anymore, and the three of them could begin healing from his time here.

Danny mentally rolled his eyes at that thought-he was beginning to sound like Jazz.

Regardless, he needed to focus. So far, he had not found anything related to ecto engineering. He was not really surprised-after all, his parents had never been able to prove the existence of ghosts and the cornerstone of their research had failed and killed their son in the process. His parents were probably scorned more here than they had been back in his own timeline. He glanced over at Sam and Tucker. Tucker was currently reading through a book on engineering, and Sam was dispassionately flipping through a book on lore. Danny could tell that she had lost her interest in that subject, and another wave of guilt rolled through him.

"Guys," Danny whispered. Sam and Tucker immediately jumped.

"God, Danny," Sam scolded. "Don't do that!"

"Sorry," Danny apologized. "I just don't think we are going to find anything here. None of the books I thought could help are here anyway, and I think we could use a break. Are you guys ready to leave?"

"Sure," Sam replied, flipping the book closed. She seemed frustrated. Danny guessed that she was upset with wasting time looking for ways to fix the portal. Tucker closed his own book gently but did not respond. Danny nodded before he realized they could not see him.

"Well, let's go ahead and move out then."

The trio got up to return their books. Danny turned his book invisible and replaced it back in its spot on a shelf. Then, he followed Sam and Tucker as they walked out of the library.

Once they stepped out into the sun, Danny breathed a sigh of relief. While they were in the library, Danny had felt as though the lights were slowly being sucked out of the room, leaving the three of them in darkness. Here, however, the sun was fiercely shining down on them, uninhibited by clouds. Danny latched on to the light, determined to let it give him hope.

"Guys, I think I'm going to go for a fly and think. Is that okay with you?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, I guess," Sam shrugged, and Tucker mimicked the action.

"I'll see you later then," Danny said. He ducked into the shadows of the library and transformed. He leaped into the sky, racing away from the grief and pain and guilt and helplessness that had been following him around for days.  
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tucker looked up into the sky, where he imagined his old friend was now.

"Do you think he's gone?" Sam asked. She moved her hands around in the area near them, and Tucker could only imagine how ridiculous she would look to people walking by.

"Yeah, I think we're alone now," Tucker replied. He could not imagine that Danny would stick around when he said he was leaving. He seemed about as uncomfortable as Tucker felt.

"Finally," Sam sighed. "I didn't know how much longer I could deal with him being here. It's just...hard, you know? He looks like Danny, he sounds like Danny, but it's just not him. He's not our Danny, the real Danny. And all of this bullshit about ghosts and timelines and everything just feels so unreal."

Tucker nodded, but didn't say anything.

"And I can't believe his nerve, you know?" Sam said angrily. Tucker felt like the dam was breaking and all of his friend's emotions were coming loose.

"Sam," Tucker said quietly.

"-Coming here and basically demanding us to help him. It's not like we asked him to come, is it? It's not like we asked him to be a constant reminder of who we've lost-"

"Sam," Tucker interjected, a little more loudly.

"Like we even know anything about ghost technology or ecto-whatever! How are we supposed to help? We're in high school! We're not engineers or, or scientists or anything! And he's not even acting like anything weird is happening or-"

"Sam!" Tucker yelled. Sam jumped and looked at him, eyes wide. She clearly was not expecting him to interrupt her. Maybe she had not even expected him to say anything.

Tucker took a breath. "He didn't ask to come here and I don't think he's trying to hurt us. He seems really uncomfortable to be around us and I think that's why he left. In his timeline, we are his best friends. Hell, in our timeline he's our best friend. Helping him is the least we can do-"

"I know, but-" Sam started, but cut herself up when she saw Tucker's face.

"We need to help him, in his memory. We owe him that. You owe him that."

Sam bristled. "What exactly is that supposed to-"

"Exactly what you think it's supposed to mean," Tucker said, face hard, voice soft. "If we hadn't been in the lab that day, and if you hadn't pressured him to go into the portal for some dumb picture, our friend would still be here. Maybe our Danny could have helped our visitor more than we can, and we would all be laughing about Danny having a twin. We'd be playing video games with even teams, or pranking Dash, or just doing dumb teenager stuff!" Tucker took another breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. His eyes were watering, from grief or anger or some combination of the two, he could not tell. "What I'm trying trying to say is that we need to respect Danny's memory and help this other Danny in any way we can. He isn't doing anything to hurt us on purpose. I get that you're angry; I'm angry, too. But it's not fair to take it out on him. Get your shit together before you take my friend away from me again."

Tucker looked Sam in the eyes for a moment before turning and walking towards his house.

Sam watched him leave, tears streaming down her face, her heart breaking even more than she thought it ever could be again.  
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Danny flew through the roof of his old home, into his old bedroom. It was empty, and Danny was not sure how to feel about that. He had half-expected all of his stuff to still be here, but he guessed it made sense that his parents would want to hang on to him in any way they could. Or maybe they sold all his stuff…?

Danny shook his head. He doubted his parents could get rid of everything that had belonged to him. With nothing here to keep him, he moved towards the lab, his real reason for coming here.

He landed in the middle of the lab, facing the gaping wound in the wall in front of him. He transformed back to Fenton and sat down, staring at the site of his and his alternate self's death. He sighed. All of his parents' stuff was still here. The lab looked almost exactly like it had on the day of the accident, messy and sterile, all at once. It felt weird being here, almost like he was trespassing. However, he could not think of a better place to build a portal than in the lab. His parents' equipment, thankfully, was here, and there was a pre-installed place to build the portal. He knew he was not going to find any guidance on how to build a portal on the web or in the library, so he was going to have to rely on his own knowledge of ectoscience and try to find his parents' records of how they built the portal. He smiled, a sliver of hope filling him. The lab was secluded, had supplies, and he doubted anyone would want to be anywhere near the Fenton house. He would figure out a way home, one way or another.

He didn't notice the blinking light on the camera in the corner.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early update! Please don't expect these updates to be this frequent... I'm still in grad school and this is the product of a lot of procrastination. Enjoy the results of my unhealthy work habits! :)

Jack Fenton was a simple man. He loved his family, loved science, and loved fudge. He had always thought that his relatively simple passions would set him up for a life of happiness and fulfillment. He had already counted himself a lucky man by the time he was 24. He had married the love of his life that year, and he could not imagine that anything could taint his happiness. His wife even shared his passions with him. They founded their own scientific business together, a dream that Jack had never thought would be fully realized. In all senses of the word, Jack was a happy man. In fact, as he welcomed his daughter and son into the world, his life only seemed to get better. They were both so perfect-he could see his entire world every time he looked upon their little faces.

Sure, he had had his share of hard times. That was part of living, after all. No living being could walk through the world without encountering hardships. He had thought that the worst day of his life was when his best friend, his dearest friend Vlad, died in a lab accident. Worse, it had been an accident that Jack could have prevented if he had been paying more attention. He never had been great at paying attention to details-he had always blamed his ADHD for that. Still, it had taken years of therapy and support from his wife to be able to move forward again in life. He would never be able to forgive himself, and he knew that. He had half-expected Vlad's ghost to come back and haunt him, and Jack would have expected nothing less. He would have deserved it. However, the years passed by, and Jack had to come to terms with the fact that he would never reencounter his friend in this world. He was not sure if he was relieved or disappointed by that. His therapist probably would have told him both emotions were possible and completely valid. Still, Jack never liked to think about the complexity of grief and feelings in general. He was, after all, a simple man.

As time went by, Jack began to delve back into the world of ectoscience. Maddie had been the one to suggest that he do just that. She had said something about focusing his energy on something productive or worthwhile or something like that. He did not understand how she did not feel the same way about Vlad's death as he did. He supposed it was because she had not been there that day, had not witnessed his friend's electrocution, had not smelled the sharp, sour smell of ectoplasm, had not seen the rapidly expanding acne cover his friend's face and slowly choke the life out of him. It was not something he would wish upon anyone.

He was grateful she had not been there.

He loved his wife. Perhaps that was why he had begun to work with her again, to try building the very thing that had taken his friend away that fateful day. He knew she was hurting, not knowing how to comfort him as he sank further and further into his grief. It hurt him to see her hurting, and he felt like her pain was his fault. So, he had picked up the phone and set up an intake with a licensed psychologist and made an appointment with his doctor to talk about medications. He had resolved to get back on his feet, no matter what it took. He loved his wife, and she needed him.

Slowly, things got better. Slowly, Jack was able to reconnect with his simple passions and rediscover the little things that made him so happy to be alive. Seeing his wife's little smiles when he got excited about a new invention or an original cookie recipe made his efforts all the more worth it to him. He just wanted to be a good husband to her, and later, a good father to their children.

As the family grew, they moved into a beautiful home with three bedrooms and a spacious basement, perfect for a laboratory. They had built it slowly, of course. They were the leading ectoscientists in the world, and because of that, their equipment did not come cheap. Ectoplasm was rare, and they needed a lot of it to experiment and test their inventions. They also had to design and create much of their own equipment. They were far ahead of the curve in their field, after all, and needed to develop new tools to keep up with their research. It was crazy, really, the amount they had been able to accomplish with the limited resources available to them.

As invested as he and his wife were in their research, they did their best to give their children happy childhoods. Jack knew that their profession would come up when their children went to school, and he worried that the other children would ostracize them because of their parents' choice of career. His fears had been realized the first time that his Jazzerincess came home crying after she had gotten into an argument about the existence of ghosts. He had been so proud of her for standing up for them, but he had never wanted his profession to hurt his children. He and Maddie had been so unsure of what to do. Should they keep their jobs as secret as possible from their children to protect their children? They were already careful because of the physical risks, but now they had to watch for the emotional risks involved as well.

In the end, Maddie and Jack had decided that they did not want to hide their work from their children. Their work and their family were the two most significant parts of their lives, and it would be weird to have to separate them. They hoped that if they did not seem ashamed of their work, then their children would not see a reason to be ashamed either. Yes, other children would probably tease them, but if their children had a safe place to come home to, then hopefully that would mitigate some of the damage. After all, the kids' classmates would probably hear about what the Fentons did at some point or another. It was not like the Fentons had lied about what they did to their neighbors.

And so, life went on. The kids grew, and so did the lab. Each day, Jack felt like he was regaining his ability to notice the little things in life that made everything worthwhile. He would feel a rush of happiness every time he had a new idea for an invention, every time he saw the way Jazz's nose crinkled when she laughed, every time they published an article, every time his wife curled up next to him in her sleep, and every time he tucked his son into bed. Indeed, he had everything he could ever want.

Jack did not mind when Jazz started to become skeptical about their work, and when she questioned the scientific reasoning behind their projects. She had her mother's mind, and that questioning was what made Maddie a great scientist. He was proud that she felt comfortable enough to question them, rather than holding in her thoughts and opinions. Jack recognized his own passion for science in her, even if hers was more about psychology rather than ectoscience. He just wanted his kids to be happy. So, he bought her the textbooks she wanted and took her to psychology conferences whenever it was feasible. Seeing the way her eyes would light up brought him so much joy.

Danny was not as vocal as Jazz, but Jack could sense that he had some of the same thoughts that she did. His Danny-boy had been quiet, reserved, and thoughtful. He tended to stay on the sidelines, but he had never been afraid to stick up for his friends. Jack frequently thought that he had never met anyone in his life who had had as pure a heart as Danny's. Sure, he was biased, but maybe it was true what they said…

Only the good die young…

Jack's heart broke every time he thought of Danny. His sweet Danny-boy, who had been smart as hell but had never been interested in really applying himself at school. Jack had always thought he would grow out of his habits of procrastination once he was in college and could study what he was interested in, but now… Now, he would never know.

Jack had thought the worst day of his life had been when he watched his best friend die right in front of him. He had been wrong. God, he had been so, so wrong.  
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It had been an average September day, with the wind bringing the brisk cold kiss of winter, while the sun stubbornly brought the light and warmth of summer into the town. It was one of those perfect days where the barriers between autumn and summer began to blend, which felt appropriate given that Jack and Maddie were starting up the portal today.

Jack and Maddie were in the lab, running the final calculations, and putting together all the necessary protective equipment in case something went wrong. Maddie and Jack already had on their HAZMAT suits, of course, but Jack had insisted that they take a few extra precautions. Maddie had been amused that he, of all people, was the one asking that they be more careful, but he was persistent. So, they had on the hoods to their HAZMAT suits, as well as plastic face coverings and aprons to protect them from any stray ectoplasm. They had also set up their work area for starting up the portal twenty feet away from the portal itself. Granted, this meant they were backed up against the wall on the opposite side of the lab… But it was for the best.

The kids were upstairs and were not allowed to come down until they came to get them. Jack was not going to risk their safety in any way. He and Maddie understood the risks, but teens had a way of imagining themselves invincible. He was not going to allow them to jeopardize their safety by not following the safety protocol to a T.  
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
Jack shook his head, forcing himself out of his flashback. It would not do to ruminate on the past, and he knew he could not go back to the place he had been when Vladdie passed. For Jazz and Maddie, Jack thought. It had become his mantra, his reason for continuing on. Maddie… Maddie was not doing well. There were days that she could not get out of bed, and her eyes were bloodshot from crying and exhaustion. Jack got it. Hell, nearly every part of him wanted to be next to her. He did not have the energy to get up, shower, get dressed, and take care of the day-to-day around the house.

He forced himself to do it anyway. For Jazz and Maddie, he reminded himself every time he felt he was not strong enough to get through the day. He had to. His family needed someone to lean on, and it might as well be him. In different circumstances, Jazz might have called his insistence that he be the 'strong one' toxic masculinity… But she had not so much as mentioned psychology since that day. Studying grief was one thing, experiencing it, however… That was something different.

It had been his idea to move. He kept waking up in the middle of the night to discover Maddie was not in bed, and he would always find her in the lab, sitting on the floor, gazing at the gaping wound in their wall. He would wordlessly help her up and guide her back to bed, and then spend the rest of the night holding her while desperate sobs wracked her body. However, the turning point had been when he was the one unable to sleep. He thought getting some water and walking around could help him relax enough for sleep. He had stopped on his path to the kitchen when he noticed the soft lighting coming through the open door to the lab. That night, he had found Jazz sitting on the floor, silently sobbing and whispering Danny's name.

He didn't think he'd be able to handle seeing her like that again.

And so, he had announced that they would be moving the next night at dinner. He had prepared a list of reasons for why it would be a good thing, but neither Maddie nor Jazz had fought him on it. He did not know what to think about that. They were both strong women, and he had never known either of them to stay quiet rather than voicing their opinions. It solidified the decision to move, but he still was not sure it had been the right one.

They moved to a nearby town called Winnfield, about an hour outside of Amity Park. Jack could not have bared it if they were too far to be able to visit Danno's grave, but they were far enough that Jazz and Maddie would not be able to torture themselves as effectively as they could at the site of his death. They still owned the home in Amity, and Jack had left the motion sensor cameras hooked up. He had not told Maddie about the cameras. Perhaps it was his own form of torture, but he kept hope that he would see something on the cameras. He had to believe that all of his work had been for a reason, that all of his knowledge and research could be used for something good.

He still had not seen a single ghost in his lifetime, but his belief in their existence never waivered. Now, he held on to hope that he would see his son again and be able to help him somehow. He had stuffed his brain full of theories and research on ghosts, and he hoped that he would be able to help his son move on, to find his way to that happy place where they would all be reunited again someday. He recognized that a part of this desire was selfish. He wanted to apologize to his son for not being more careful, for not being more open with him about the dangers of the lab. He never had told his kids about Vlad, after all. He had figured that was his burden to bear, not his kids', but maybe if Danny had known about what happened, he would not have done what he did.

So, Jack waited. He and Maddie had never been sure about how long it would take for a ghost to form after someone's death. He had set up the camera system to send alerts to his phone anytime movement was detected. That particular app on his phone had been silent for over a year and a half now. He supposed that his son had already moved on, and for that, he was grateful. He would say his apologies to his son when he saw him again, even if it was not in this lifetime. His need for closure was not half as important as his son's peace and happiness. He really should delete the app, but something kept him from doing that. Removing it felt like he was somehow saying goodbye to his son for good, and he was not ready for that. He knew it would never send any notifications unless someone had broken into the lab. He doubted that would ever happen, but he used the possibility as an excuse any time he thought of deleting the app.

That was why he had been so shocked when the app sent a notification that there was movement detected in the lab that afternoon. Maybe it's kids breaking in on a dare, Jack thought. He headed to the spare room that they kept the computer. Jazz mostly used it for schoolwork now, but every now and then, he liked to pass the time playing mindless matching games. Jazz was at school, and Maddie was still in bed, but he could easily tell her that's what he was doing if she happened to come looking for him.

Jack waited for the computer to load up, then went to open up the app that connected to the camera system back home. He noticed his hands were shaking as he clicked the mouse. Deep breath, Jack, he scolded himself. He needed to remain calm, no matter what happened. For Jazz and Maddie, he reminded himself.

Slowly, he clicked on the small square on the screen that currently showed the lab. The square enlarged, and Jack nearly choked.

"Oh, my God," Jack exhaled, hardly believing what he was seeing.

There, on the screen, was his son. His very human-looking son, right down to the red-and-white tee he loved so much they had bought him duplicates. Jack watched his son as he paced in front of the portal, every now and then stopping to stare at it. Jack felt his heart drop. Was he reliving the day of his death? He and Maddie had suspected that weaker ghosts could get stuck in a cycle where they repeatedly relived their final moments. Still, he had never considered that his son…

Jack was jerked out of his spiraling thought pattern when he saw Danny turn towards the bookcase, where they kept the records of all of their previous research and experiments. He bent down, obviously thumbing through the journals looking for something in particular. But what…? Jack was not sure, but he knew that was something his Danny had never done, had never even had any interest in doing. He was not reliving his deathday, thank God. That meant he was sentient, at least, but that only opened up the gateway for a million more questions to run through his mind. There were so many unknowns, and he was only sure of one thing.

His son was back.

Now Jack just needed to decide what his next steps were.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that was my first time writing Jack. It was kind of fun, actually. I may do more flashbacks in future chapters, but I'm not sure yet. Until next time!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this is late! I hope you enjoy this chapter, though!! I'll be better about updating in the future, my summer just got far busier than I thought it would. But now I'm procrastinating writing other things, so I'll probably update this soon haha

Danny sat down, cross-legged, on the floor of the lab. He had a stack of his parents’ journals next to him, and was currently holding the most recent journal he could find. He figured that if his parents had really quit ghost hunting after his accident, then the most recent journal probably had the best information on the portal. Maybe he could find out where they went wrong…

Danny sighed. He had never been one to read for hours--that was more Jazz’s thing. Sure, he loved reading about space, but otherwise, he enjoyed spending his time playing video games with his friends. So, he was not particularly looking forward to spending an undecided amount of time reading about his parents’ experiments. In all honesty, he tried to avoid them as much as possible. Sometimes, his (half) life depended on it. 

Ironically, Danny thought he had learned more about his parents’ work by actively avoiding it than he had when he was simply indifferent to it. He was pretty sure that he had tuned his parents out any time they had come to show him and Jazz their latest invention. Now, however, he had to be sure he knew what each invention looked like, what its purpose was, and what it actually did. Eh--maybe he had not actually avoided his parents’ work completely. He had made sure he knew everything he needed to know to protect himself, and then he had avoided their work completely. He hoped that what he had learned would be enough for him to rebuild the portal. 

And so, he opened up the most recent of his parents’ journals and began to read.   
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sam laid in her bed, looking up at her ceiling. She still had not changed out of the clothes that she had worn to school that day. Her thought process was discombobulated, and her emotions were shifting so quickly that she could barely track them. It was an odd experience--she usually was pretty good at regulating her emotions. Coping with her parents’ pressures, school, social hierarchy drama at high school, grieving her best friend, and all the while doing her best to keep working towards her goals had forced her to hone that skill. She could not afford to take a break and “work through things” as her parents had suggested. What dumb advice, she thought. Granted, she had been surprised when her parents had told her she should take a semester off from school for bereavement. It is not like they had cared for Danny in the first place. Sometimes her parents surprised her… But it still did not change the fact that they wanted to change her. 

Sam rolled over on her side and grabbed one of the ridiculously fluffy pillows that adorned her bed. She held it close to her and screwed her eyes closed, willing herself to cry, thinking that would give her some relief from whatever it was that she was feeling. No tears came, but she did end up with a mild headache from scrunching her eyes shut so forcefully. She did not get it. Why couldn’t she cry? Her best friend had just yelled at her for mistreating Other Danny, even though seeing him must cause Tucker the same pain it caused her. She didn’t like that gut-punch of guilt she felt every time she saw Danny’s face…  
She had never forgiven herself for pressuring Danny to check out that stupid portal in the first place. 

To be honest, she wasn’t entirely sure why she was so mean to Other Danny. Logically, she knew that he wanted to be here, in this timeline, just as much as she wanted him here. She also recognized that she was making him feel awful about something that wasn’t his fault… Sam did not know much about alternate timelines or dimensions or whatever, but she did know Danny, and Danny would never do something that hurt her or Tucker. So, she knew that this was not some elaborate, dumb prank on his part. 

Well, maybe she did know why she was still so mean to him, despite knowing that he did not want to cause her or Tucker any more emotional pain. She was painfully aware of the guilt she was reminded of every time she saw Other Danny. But… it was a little bit more than that. She almost felt like God was punishing her for killing her best friend by bringing Other Danny here. And she hated that. She blamed herself, yes, but she didn’t think she deserved to be punished… It was a stupid dare and she was a stupid teenager. That didn’t make what happened murder or manslaughter… did it? 

Sam and Tucker never told the police, the Fentons, or anyone that she had been the one to pressure Danny into messing around with the portal. She had been afraid of what would happen if anyone knew her role in what happened, and her panic pushed her to convince Tucker not to tell anyone either. Sam had worried that she could be held legally responsible for Danny’s death. She still did, really. Sam knew that the Fentons would not blame her, but now that she had kept this for a secret for so long, Sam felt like she was keeping something from them that may help them cope. After all, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton had repeatedly stated that they were confused about how this happened. They had always told Danny and Jazz not to set foot in the lab if they were not there, and they were never allowed to handle their inventions by themselves. Sam felt like she held the missing piece that would explain everything and help them understand why what happened happened. She hated that. She hated that she was still too scared to tell them the truth…

That was why Sam was so mean to him, why she hated being around Other Danny. Every time she saw his face, his innocent blue eyes, she was reminded of her not-so-innocent soul. She was forced to face this ugly, selfish side of herself that did not want to be held responsible for Danny’s death. She valued honesty and she had always been vocal about what she thought was right. And yet, here she was, keeping a secret that could help Danny’s family heal just so that she did not have to face the consequences. 

Sam bit her lip as she felt the tears finally fall from her eyes and choked back a sob.   
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Danny was leaned against one of the lab walls, lazily flipping through yet another journal. He was getting tired of this, fast. He could not find anything specific telling him how to fix the portal. Danny had read about theoretical principles to support why a portal to the Ghost Zone should be possible. This was not helpful at all, considering that he already knew that a portal was possible. Heck, he had gone through one to get here! What he needed, desperately, was information about how they had actually constructed the portal. And yet… there was nothing. Danny growled in frustration when he reached the end of another journal that did not have a single thing about the engineering behind the portal. He stood up and threw the journal as hard as he could across the lab. It ended up being really unsatisfying… The pages caused air resistance and the journal only made it about three feet away from him. Danny scoffed. He charged up an ectoblast and hit the journal, disintegrating it. Take that, journal, Danny thought. He sighed and slid back down the wall. 

That was probably stupid, Danny admitted to himself. Now he couldn’t go back and read through the journal again in more depth… Oh well. He sighed and cradled his head in his hands. He really wished that he could talk to his parents about the portal, but well, no one had exactly reacted positively to seeing him so far in this timeline. Granted, only two people had seen him, but they were also the two people that Danny trusted most in this world. 

Danny heard the door to the lab open and immediately jumped up. He heard quick footsteps trotting down the stairs and turned invisible. He thought that no one would come near the Fenton house, much less come down to the infamous lab.

“Uh, hello?” Tucker asked, and Danny sighed with relief and popped back into the visible spectrum. “Ah!” Tucker squealed, jumping back and dropping the bags he was holding. 

“Oh, sorry, Tucker!” Danny said, walking over and picking up what Tucker had dropped. He saw the Nasty Burger logo and smelled the greasy goodness that the bags held. His stomach immediately growled in response, informing Danny that it had been over twelve hours since he had last eaten. 

“It--It’s all good, man,” Tucker replied, clearly shaken. “I just, I guess I’m not used to that.” He gave a nervous chuckle. He gestured to the Nasty Burger bags. “I thought you might be hungry?”

“I’m starving!” Danny replied, handing Tucker one of the bags. “Thanks, man!” He pulled out a burger and quickly unwrapped it, biting into it with glee. 

Tucker slid into one of the chairs at a desk. He pulled out his own burger and started eating it. The two ate in silence for a moment before Tucker started up a conversation. “So… How are things going?”

“Not well,” Danny sighed. “I thought that there would be notes in my parents’ journals about how they built the portal, but so far I’ve only found arguments about why a portal to the Ghost Zone is possible.”  
“Oh,” Tucker said, opening a ketchup packet for his fries. “Well, maybe you’re looking in the older journals?”

Danny shook his head. “No, I grabbed the most recent ones I could find. They seem to stop in February three years ago, and I can’t find anything that was written after that. I could be looking in the wrong place, though.” Danny shrugged and took another bite of his burger. 

“Maybe your parents took them with them when they moved?” Tucker suggested. 

“Maybe, but I thought you and Sam said they gave up ghost hunting when they moved. If that’s true, why would they want their journals?”

“Well… Maybe they were worried somebody else would try and use their research?”

“Maybe,” Danny said hesitantly. “I don’t know, I guess I was under the impression they left pretty quickly after… you know.”

“They did, kind of. They stuck around a little longer than a month, then they moved.” Tucker took a sip of his drink. “Dude… You don’t have to be afraid to talk about the Accident. I mean, I appreciate it since it was pretty much the worst day of my life, but I don’t know how helpful it is to tiptoe around it.”

Danny nodded slowly. “Oh, okay. I just feel kinda awkward talking about it. And honestly… I’ve never really liked talking about it either.” Danny shrugged and suddenly seemed to become very interested in one of his fries. 

“Oh,” Tucker uttered. He was not really sure what he should say, but his friend’s comment had made him curious. “But… Why? Like, for me and Sam, that day was pretty dramatic. Not to mention traumatic. But for you… You lived that day in your world.”

Danny flinched, and Tucker could immediately tell he had said something wrong. “Not exactly. I did... I did die that day. Just… halfway, I guess. It took a really long time for me to accept it, but then the anniversary of the Accident came around and it was pretty hard to deny after that.”

Tucker opened his mouth to ask what Danny meant by that but stopped when he saw Danny glance at him and smile sheepishly. “You know, that was the first time I’ve ever actually told anyone that. Up until the anniversary, I had always thought of myself as a kid with ghost powers, not half-dead. That’s still the way I talk about it with the Sam and Tucker from my timeline. It’s just… easier that way, I suppose.”

Tucker nodded, feeling a little weirded out and a little honored that his friend shared something with him that he had not shared with Other Tucker. “So, if you haven’t talked about this with the me from your world, why are you telling me?”  
“I don’t really know,” Danny admitted. “I guess it’s because the me from this world actually is dead, and you’ve had some time to deal with that. With the Sam and Tucker from my world, I don’t know if it would actually do any good to tell them. It does feel good to finally say it out loud though.”

Tucker just nodded in response, and the conversation fell back into silence. The two finished their lunches, and then threw their trash back into the fast food bags. 

“So, if your parents did take the journals or destroy them or whatever, what are you going to do next?” Tucker asked. 

“I don’t really know,” Danny stated. “I have some experience with my parents’ tech, but that was mostly for the purpose of dismantling stuff that could hurt me. I don’t really know much about the portal itself. I’m kind of frustrated because I felt like I finally had something to do, but now I’m back to having no clue what to do.”

“Well, maybe we should look into some of the theoretical stuff your parents have written down. We could try to understand that, and then maybe we can figure out what we need to do next.” Tucker suggested. 

“Yeah, I guess that’s our best bet. It’s going to be hard, though. I mean, my parents both have Ph.D.s in this stuff, and well, I’m not exactly excelling in high school right now.” 

Tucker nodded. “It might be interesting, though. I can’t think of anything else besides asking your parents for help.”

“Yeah, I don’t want to do that,” Danny said, shaking his head. 

“I get that,” Tucker nodded. “Well, where is the most recent journal you could find?”

Danny smiled sheepishly. “It’s possible it had an accident…” Danny gestured towards the black, ashy spot on the floor. 

“Dude,” Tucker said, shaking his head. 

“I was frustrated,” Danny said, rubbing the back of his neck. 

“Something tells me there’s a lot I don’t know about ghost abilities,” Tucker muttered. “Okay, well point me to another journal, then. We can also use your parents’ whiteboard to write down anything we find that could be useful.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Danny agreed, leading Tucker over to where his parents stored their journals.  
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jack took a sip of his lukewarm coffee, barely registering the taste as he did so. His eyes were red and dry, a consequence of staring at a computer screen for hours. Jack had been watching his son, tracking his steps as he paced back and forth in the lab, watching as he flipped through their journals, observing him as he seemed to be deep in thought. It was so strange--Jack was almost convinced that he was dreaming and was afraid to step away from the computer. He did not want to come back and find out that he had been imagining everything. 

So, Jack had been watching. His son seemed...normal. He had not done anything that would indicate that he was a ghost, which was part of why Jack was not convinced he was not imagining his son. 

Then, something happened. His son seemed to get frustrated about something and attempted to throw the journal he had been reading. It did not go very far, which was something that Jack himself had discovered during his own frustrations with his work. What happened next, though…

His son stood up, clearly annoyed that throwing the journal had not been more satisfactory. Then, his hand was surrounded by bright green energy, which he then proceeded to launch at the journal, destroying it immediately. 

Jack choked on his coffee. 

Had that really just happened? He watched as his son sat back down, looking like a completely normal, human teenager. Had he and Maddie misunderstood ghosts to the point where they didn’t realize they looked so human? He was lost in thought until he watched his son jump up and turn invisible. He watched as Tucker, one of his son’s best friends, walked down the stairs into the lab. 

Jack’s son suddenly became visible again, causing both Jack and Tucker to jump. Jack felt like he could not think. He knew he could still be imagining things, that maybe his lack of sleep was causing him to hallucinate. He watched as Danny picked up a fast-food bag and started eating a burger. Did ghosts...eat? Tucker and Danny seemed pretty comfortable together for the most part. How long had Danny been around? 

Jack shook his head. He felt like he was going crazy and like all of his life’s work was being refuted before his very eyes. He needed to know if what he was seeing was real. 

He needed to see his son.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! Uh... Sorry for the long, unplanned hiatus on this story. My bad... This chapter is a little longer than previous ones, so I hope that helps!
> 
> TRIGGER WARNING: Also, I want to warn you all that I do mention suicide in this chapter. It's brief and just a passing thought, but all the same. If you feel any distress, you can call the national suicide hotline at 1-800-273-8255 in the US.
> 
> Hope you all enjoy this chapter!

Jack rubbed his hand down his face, trying to clear his mind. He had been watching his son and his friend, Tucker, as they went through each of Jack's and Maddie's research journals. How Jack wished that he could hear what they were saying. He tried analyzing their body language, but he simply did not have the skills that Jazz would. Jack wished he had paid more attention to her when she would talk about her psychology interests. Just another thing to add to his list of regrets… Still, Jack was making an effort to interpret their movements as they spoke with each other. If he had to guess, he would say that they both seemed tense. His son sat with his back against the wall, hunched over the journal. The position let him rest the journal against his knees. Still, Jack noticed that the position also gave him the advantage of seeing everything in his surroundings. His son had never been the observant type; a trait that Maddie frequently teased came from Jack himself. Yet here he was, almost certainly observing his surroundings. Jack began to notice that Danny would tilt his head every now and then. It was almost as if Danny were looking towards a suspicious sound or if Danny thought he saw something out of the corners of his eyes. This child, Jack's child, seemed like he felt he needed to be on guard. But against what…?

Danny had never seemed like he worried about much in life. He was shy but friendly; timid but trusting. Danny would laugh with his friends, and their bond had seemed almost unbreakable to Jack. Honestly, Danny's friendship with Tucker and Sam reminded Jack so much of his own friendships with Vlad and Maddie when they were in college… Before tragedy had ripped them apart. Jack and Maddie had even whispered about how Sam and Danny seemed like they were on the same path that Jack and Maddie had been all those years ago. Jack had purchased a class ring engraved with Sam's name for when Danny was ready to tell her how he felt. Jack had not even told Maddie about the ring. He had grinned when he bought it—Jack could imagine how surprised Danny and Maddie would be when he was finally able to gift it to his son. The ring was now tucked away deep in his nightstand. Sometimes, Jack would pull it out just to look at it. It was Jack's connection to the future his son would never get to have.

Jack sighed. He stretched his neck until it popped, trying to get the thoughts out of his head. Jack needed to focus on the present, not a future that would never be. He focused his eyes on Tucker, who sat at the lab table a few feet away from Danny. That was unusual, too. Tucker had always been right by Danny's side. If Danny was sitting on the floor, so would he. If Tucker had not wanted to sit on the floor, Danny would have moved to sit at the table as well to make sure his friend was comfortable. Danny had always been thoughtful like that. Yet here they were, sitting apart from each other. Was there a strain in their relationship? Jack guessed that there must be. He could not imagine how he would react if Vlad suddenly came back from the dead.

Jack was even more surprised when Tucker left for the night. Those two had always wanted to spend the night as often as possible. Yet here was Tucker, leaving on a Friday night? Why? Was he uncomfortable sleeping when Danny was around? If his son was a ghost, that could make sense… Maybe Danny gave off an aura that Jack simply could not detect through the camera. It was also possible that Tucker's parents expected him home. It would be hard to explain why Tucker was spending the night at his dead best friend's home, but he also could have lied and said he was staying with Sam. There was no way to be sure why Tucker was leaving. What Jack thought was even stranger than Tucker leaving, however, was that Danny seemed to be planning on staying in the lab overnight. He watched as his son pulled together a couple of chairs and laid down on them. His back was still to the wall, and his upper body was upright as he leaned against the back of the chair, but it seemed like he was settling in for the night. So… did this mean ghosts slept?

Jack pushed his chair away from the desk and closed out of the surveillance system. He turned and walked out of his computer room. His mind felt like it was racing, yet Jack could not tell you exactly what was going through his head. It was almost like he was too tired to be anxious, yet no one had let his anxiety know about that. Jack took slow, heavy steps down the stairs and made his way to the room Jack shared with Maddie. He glanced at the microwave clock as he passed by; it was 1:36 in the morning. Jack was not sure exactly how he would explain his recent absence around the house to Maddie. He knew she needed him to be present.

When he made it to their bedroom, he eased himself into the covers and rolled over to kiss Maddie's head. She rolled over when she felt his touch and reached out for him. Jack held her hand. Guilt rolled through him; he had been keeping so much from her. "Maddie," Jack said, his voice barely above a whisper. "I need to tell you something."

"Hmm?" She inquired. "What is it, Jack?"

Jack could tell that she was still mostly asleep. He watched as her lilac eyes blinked slowly at him. Her hair was disheveled. It seemed that she had had another nightmare while he was away. They always left her tossing and turning. He could not bring himself to tell her the truth about their son. "I… I have a therapy appointment scheduled for tomorrow. I'm going to have to get there a little early to fill out some paperwork, so I'm going to be gone for a couple hours tomorrow." The lie slipped through his mouth, surprising him with how easily he said it.

"Oh, Jack," Maddie mumbled. She pulled herself closer to him. "I'm glad. You've seemed so stressed recently. I'm glad you're going to do something for yourself. You've done so much for Jazz and me." She yawned and adjusted herself as she prepared to fall back asleep.

"Thanks, Maddie," Jack muttered. How did he get to be so lucky? His heart clenched, feeling all the guilt come bubbling back up again.

Something told him he would not be getting much sleep tonight.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Danny woke up slowly, blinking his eyes against the fluorescent lights that filled the lab. He probably should have turned them off last night, but he had honestly been too tired to get up once he let himself relax into his makeshift bed. Speaking of which…

Danny groaned as he rolled off of the chairs. His body was aching where he had laid on the gaps between the chairs. Wrong decision, bad decision, Danny thought to himself. He hoped that his quick healing would take of these body aches quickly. He did not want to spend all day reading again. That would be a boring way to spend a Saturday. Trying to focus while also dealing with the body aches would make everything just that much more miserable. He glanced around the lab. He and Tucker had left journals all over the lab. There was no organization, and Danny could not tell which journals had been read and which ones had not. He definitely could not tell which ones Danny had read and which ones Tucker had. When Tucker started helping, Danny had tried to keep his journals separated from Tucker's. He knew Tucker did not understand much about his parents' technology, despite being a certified tech genius on non-ecto-powered machinery. However, Tucker had clearly thought Danny was trying to keep the journals in a neat stack, and he promptly started to put his journals on Danny's stack. Danny did not have the heart to tell him that he was planning on reading all of Tucker's journals as soon as he left.

And so, Danny was left with a relatively large number of research journals strewn around his parents' lab. He sighed. Danny felt like he had made almost no progress yesterday to rebuild his parents' portal. He was quickly losing hope. He tried to convince himself that he was just tired. Clearly, he did not get adequate sleep on a couple of chairs placed in a row. Danny rubbed his chest, trying to soothe the pain he felt there. If he did not know any better, he would say that his core was hurting… But why would that be? He thought that his core should be regaining some of the energy that it had been steadily losing since he came to this timeline. Tucker had come over to help him, and the two of them had spent time together. Sure, Danny had not done anything explicitly to help Tucker. Still, surely some kind of healing should be going on if Tucker was willing to spend such an extended period around him, right?

Danny shook his head, rubbing his hand down his face. Surely, he was just tired. Danny just needed some coffee, and he should probably look into better sleeping arrangements for the future. He had just felt weird about sleeping in his bed. Since it was not technically the same one in his timeline, it kind of felt like sleeping in someone else's bed without permission. Maybe he should just get over it and sleep there anyway tonight. Danny climbed the stairway out of the lab, heading into the family kitchen. It was kind of eerie how everything was still in the same place as it had been before his family moved out. Still, that meant that there was a chance that he could find some coffee to brew. Danny started rifling through the cabinets. The coffee was not in its usual spot, but maybe his parents just kept it somewhere different here.

He looked through the pantry, the cabinets, and even through the fridge, but it seemed like there was no coffee to be found in the old Fenton household. Danny ran his hand through his hair in exasperation. There were still boxes of cereal, granola bars, and even some casseroles in the fridge that looked like they had been there for a questionably long time. How was it possible that there was no coffee?

Oh well, Danny thought. Looks like I'm going to have to get out of the house. Truth be told, he was craving the house blend at his favorite coffee place, the Amity Bean. He would have to be sneaky if he wanted their coffee, however. Not only did he not have cash, but he was supposed to be dead, after all. He might have some money hidden in his room still, but he needed a disguise. Danny turned out of the kitchen and started heading up the stairs to his bedroom. Once he got there, he headed straight towards his closet, refusing to soak in the weirdness of being in his not-room. Danny grabbed a simple black hoodie and pulled open his nightstand drawer. He located his secret wad of cash and thrust it into his hoodie pocket. Then, he headed back out of his room as quickly as he could.

Danny turned himself invisible and intangible right before walking through the front door. It would probably be best if he went unseen as much as possible. He started walking the familiar route to the Amity Bean. Well… familiar enough. Usually, he would fly there, but he did not want to risk the light of his transformation catching anyone's attention once he got to the coffee shop. If he was frank with himself, he was being a lot more conscientious about being as discreet as possible than he was in his own timeline. People in his Amity Park tended to shrug off anything weird that happened, given that ghost attacks had become a pretty regular occurrence. Some flashy lights probably would not even register as odd for most people in his Amity. Here, however, that was perhaps not the case. Jazz would probably tell him he was gaining some critical skills for maintaining his secret back home, and he would shrug her off while knowing that she had a good point. Maybe he should be more careful if he got back home…

Danny froze. When I get home, Danny corrected himself. When, not if. He nodded and continued on his invisible path.

Eventually, Danny found himself in front of the Amity Bean. He phased himself into the building and into the bathrooms. Danny sighed in relief when he realized no one was in there and dropped his invisibility. He pulled up his hood and opened the bathroom door into the main café area. Danny breathed in the smell of the freshly ground coffee beans and allowed a small smile to grace his lips. Allowing himself this little treat brought up his spirits more than he thought it would. Still smiling, he got in line to order.

He waited as the person in front of him ordered, glancing around the café. It was moderately busy, which was probably for the best. It would be easier for him to blend in if there were plenty of people around. Less attention would be on him.

"Sir?" Danny jumped before realizing that the cashier was calling on him to order. He blushed and walked quickly to the register.

"Sorry," Danny apologized.

"No worries!" The cashier smiled. Danny glanced at her name tag; her name was Olivia. Danny let go of a breath he did not realize he was holding when he realized he did not know her. "What can I get for you?"

"Uh, can I just get a large of the house blend, please?"

"Sure, that'll be $1.82," Olivia said, entering the order in. Danny reached into his pocket and pulled out two one-dollar bills. Olivia made the change and handed it back to him, which Danny immediately dropped in the tip jar. "Thanks! Your order will be right up. What's your name?"

"Uh, it's Liam."

The cashier nodded in acknowledgment, and Danny went over to stand by the pickup area. He looked around the café some more while he waited. It was weird doing something so normal while trying so hard not to be noticed. Danny chuckled to himself when he realized that usually he was not noticed even when he was trying to be. That is, when he was Fenton. He thought about whether or not trying not to be noticed would have the opposite effect. That would be ironic, for sure. Huh, Lancer would be proud if he knew I knew what irony is, Danny thought to himself. He supposed he really was learning something in English, despite his sleeping in class and frequent bathroom breaks.

"No way!" A loud voice forced Danny out of his thoughts. He turned towards the sound and felt the blood drain from his face when he made eye contact with Dash, of all people. "Fenturd?!"

"Uh," Danny said intelligently. "No?"

Dash stood up from the table he was sitting at with Kwan, and Danny instinctively stepped back.

Danny swore under his breath and quickly made his way to the exit. He heard chairs moving against the floor and knew that Dash must be standing up to follow him. Danny moved a little faster, shoving the door to the café open. The bell attached to the door jingled pleasantly, a distinct contrast to the fear Danny felt gripping his heart. As soon as he turned the corner around the café, Danny blinked out of visibility. He held his breath as he saw Dash racing out of the café, wildly looking around. The café bell jingled again as Kwan came out, following his friend.

"Dude, you okay?" Danny heard Kwan ask.

"Y-yeah," Dash said. "I just… I could've sworn—"  
"I know, man, it freaked me out, too. No way it was him, though."

"Right, yeah," Dash chuckled half-heartedly, clearly still shaken.

Kwan laughed. "I think you gave that dweeb a heart attack, dude, he probably shit his pants!"

Dash chuckled. "Yeah… Yeah, dumb nerd." The insult sounded familiar coming out of the jock's mouth, but the tone did not. All of the heat, all of the rage that usually made up who Dash was, seemed to be absent. It was… It was a little spooky, in Danny's opinion.

Danny closed his eyes and waited until he heard the café's bell chime again, signaling that the two boys had re-entered the café. He let out of ragged breath, his heart beating at about the speed it usually did before he had his accident. That was close, Danny thought. He turned and started walking back to his house, taking care to keep his footsteps quiet when he passed other pedestrians.

It was not until he got back to the lab that he realized he did not have the opportunity to grab his coffee.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jack gripped the steering wheel to get some blood flowing into his hands. He was nervous. Jack was so, so scared. He had thought he had been worried when he presented his dissertation research to his committee, but he was wrong. He thought he had been nervous on his wedding day, standing in front of a crowd of people as he waited for Maddie to come walking down the aisle. He thought he had been nervous when the doctors pushed him out of the room because the umbilical cord was wrapped around Jazz's neck. He had waited outside the room in what at the time had felt like unbearable fear.

All of the nervousness he had felt in his past paled as he drove towards the ghost of his son.

Jack did not know what to expect. Would Danny still be there? What if he had left or moved on in the time since he left home? What if Danny was aggressive? What if he behaved like he had always thought ghosts would? What if he tried to kill Jack?

What if he did not even remember Jack?

Somehow, that seemed even worse than having to fight the ghost of his son. And yet, that had been one of his and Maddie's most certain theories. They were sure that the trauma of death, and there must be significant trauma at the time of death for a ghost to form, would lead the spirit to not remember their life or their death. Oddly, it would protect the ghost from the pain they experienced up to and including their deaths.

Jack sucked in a deep breath and pursed his lips as he slowly released the air. This was why he had not told Maddie where he was really going today. She should not have to deal with the pain this reunion would almost certainly bring. Jack had told Maddie he was seeing a therapist in Amity Park. He had lied and said that he would be seeing the only therapist in the area who would take their insurance and quickly see him. Maddie had protested, saying that she wanted to do research and find out who the best person in the area was and that waiting to get in would be worth it if they would be sure to help him. She had stopped arguing once Jack told her that he could not wait any longer. His heart had nearly broken when he saw her eyes flood with tears. She bit her lip and nodded, and told him that she would always be there for him. Jack knew what she thought—he knew that she was worried that she was close to losing him. He told her that he would always be there for her. Still, he did not want to blatantly talk about suicide in front of his daughter. Jazz was sitting at the table, pushing her breakfast around on her plate. Jack was already concerned that she had not spoken up at all. Before, she would have been so excited that anyone in their family was going to see someone. She probably had a list of people she looked up to in the area. And yet… She was silent. Jack would not burden her with any worries that might not have occurred to her. Jack would tell Maddie later that he would never even think about leaving her like that.

Anyway, Jack's excuse had bought him about three hours. He drove faster than he usually would to increase the amount of time that he would spend with his son. For him, that was saying something. Jack had always been a fast, somewhat reckless driver, so he really should not have been pushing the family car—a modest sedan—to the limit. He had not driven the RV since the family had moved out of Amity. Jack made it into town in twenty minutes, and he continued to go as quickly as possible until he pulled up in front of his old home. He put the car in park and gazed at the building. It was strange being back here. This place had been built on his and Maddie's dreams, and their time there had ended with their worst nightmare. He walked up to the front door and pulled out his keys, his hands shaking as he struggled to find the right one. Eventually, he found it and was able to open the door.

He pushed the door open, hearing it creak as it moved to allow him in. He was aware of every step he took as he made his way to the lab. The door was open—Jack could hear movement downstairs. That was a good sign, right? That meant there was someone down there. He stepped down onto the top step, and the stair creaked under his weight. The movement stopped—whoever was there knew he was there now. He kept walking down the stairs, trying to keep his speed relatively normal.

"Tucker?" Jack heard the voice call. It was Danny. He knew it was Danny. His voice sounded the same; it was almost like nothing had changed. Jack finished coming down the stairs, pausing at the bottom.

"Did you bring any more food? I haven't eaten today, and I'm starving. Oh, and I should probably tell you about a, um, adventure that I had today," Danny chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. He turned towards the stairs and immediately froze.

"H-hi, Danny," Jack said. His voice caught as he tried to get the simple sentence out. He cleared his throat.

"D-dad?" Danny asked, still standing still. Jack noticed that he was standing stiller than any human should be able to… But was he just imagining it? The word that Danny just used finally registered to Jack.

"You remember me?" He asked.

"Well, yeah…" Danny said quietly.

Jack rushed up to Danny, and Danny yelped as he was suddenly wrapped in the biggest hug that Jack had ever given in his life. "Oh, Danny, oh, Danny…" Jack dissolved into sobs. He wrapped his arms tighter around his son. Jack could feel his warmth. He could feel his son breathing. At that moment, it was like he was back, like his son had never even left.

"Uh, Dad?" Danny said. He coughed, signaling that he could not breathe well. Jack let go of his son and put his hands on his shoulders. He looked his son in the eyes. Tears were streaming out of his eyes.

"Danny, I am so sorry. I am so sorry about everything. I love you, son. I love you so much," Jack tried to pour as much emotion into his words as possible, trying to make his son feel how much love and regret was behind every word. He watched as his son seemed to break a little. Danny's face dropped, and he looked towards the ground.

"Dad, I need to tell you something," Danny began.

"Anything, you can tell me anything, Danny," Jack said. "Nothing could ever change how much I love you. I am here for you, son. You can tell me anything."

"Dad, I—I'm not your son," Danny said.

"Yes, you are, Danny. It doesn't matter to me at all if you've changed in any way. You are still my Danny-boy."

"No, Dad, you don't understand. I'm Danny, but I'm not your Danny. I-I-I mean, Jack Fenton is my father, and I'm his son, but I'm a different Danny. I'm not… I'm not from here. I'm not your Danny…" Danny trailed off, feeling helpless.

"What do you mean, son? I don't understand," Jack said, his brows furrowing together. "Look, I get that everything might feel different right now, but it still doesn't change how I feel about you or who you are."

"No, you're not getting it. It's like… Okay, this is hard to explain." Danny took a deep breath. "I don't know how I got here, but—"

"That's okay!" Jack started nodding enthusiastically. "That's okay, we can figure it out together—"

"Dad!" Danny tried to pull back, but his father clearly did not want to let him go. He knew what he had to say would hurt him, but he could not lie to him. All the same, he felt like his core was getting stabbed, knowing that he was going to say something that would cause pain. "Dad, I'm not Danny, I'm not your Danny. And I don't mean in a ghost way—well, I guess it's kind of in a ghost way, but not exactly—"

"Oh, shit…"

Danny and Jack's heads both snapped towards the stairs. There was Tucker, holding another Nasty Burger bag. His face had all the fear that Danny knew he himself was feeling.

"Uh… Hi there, Mr. Fenton! How have you been? Haha…" Tucker chuckled, the awkward laugh giving way into a more awkward silence.


End file.
